Potholes, ruts, washouts, and standing water — fixed by correcting the drainage that caused them, not just by dumping more rock on top.
We repair and regrade rock and gravel driveways across Southeast Texas — filling ruts and potholes, restoring the crown so water sheds off, correcting drainage, and topping with fresh material. On acreage, shops, farm entrances, and long rural drives.
A gravel driveway is a drainage structure whether anyone designed it that way or not. It fails for the same reason lawns and job sites fail in this region, and it's the same two conditions stacking:
The clay underneath doesn't drain. Much of Southeast Texas sits on heavy, poorly drained clay with very slow permeability. Water that gets through the rock reaches the clay and stops. It has nowhere to go, so it sits there, softens the base, and turns it to a consistency that can't hold weight.
The ground is flat. On terrain with very little natural fall, water that lands on the drive doesn't run off unless the surface is shaped to make it. Without a crown it just sits in place and soaks straight down.
Once the base is saturated, traffic does the rest. Tires push soft material aside, ruts form, the ruts hold more water than the surrounding surface, and the whole thing accelerates. That's why a drive that was fine for two years can go bad in one wet season.
The most common thing people try is ordering a load of gravel and spreading it over the bad spots. It looks better for a few weeks. But if the problem is a saturated base and no crown, the new rock sits on top of the same soft ground and sinks into it — you've bought material and paid to have it swallowed. Fresh rock is the last step, not the first. The grade has to be corrected first or you're just refilling the same holes on a schedule.
Reshaping the surface so it sheds water to the sides instead of holding it. A proper crown — slightly higher down the center, falling away to both edges — is what keeps water moving off the driving surface. It's the single most important thing about a gravel drive and the first thing that disappears over time.
Filling and compacting rather than just topping. Material dropped loosely into a pothole washes out with the next rain; it has to be worked into the surrounding surface to stay.
Where runoff has cut across or along the drive, the fix is redirecting the water as much as replacing the material. Otherwise the same channel reopens in the same place.
Shaping the ditch lines and shoulders alongside the drive so water has a route away from it. Frequently the real cause is that runoff from the surrounding property is crossing the driveway, and no amount of surface work fixes that. See site prep and dirt work.
Once the base and grade are right, new material goes on and actually stays where it's put.
Estimates are free. We'll tell you honestly whether you need a regrade or just a load of rock — and those are very different numbers.
Usually the base is saturated and the surface has lost its crown. Water sits instead of shedding, softens the ground underneath, and traffic pushes the soft material aside. Until the grade and drainage are corrected, the holes come back.
You can, and it helps briefly. But if the base is soft and there's no crown, new rock sinks into the same soft ground. Fresh material is the last step after the grade is fixed, not a substitute for fixing it.
Most residential drives are a same-day or next-day job. Long rural drives or ones needing base rebuild and drainage work take longer. We'll tell you when we quote it.
Yes, and it's often the actual fix. If runoff from the surrounding property crosses the drive, no amount of surface work holds. Shaping ditch lines and shoulders is frequently what makes the repair last.
Yes. Acreage entrances, interior ranch roads, and shop access are a large part of this work.
We fix the drainage, not just the surface. Free estimates across Southeast Texas.
